Several classes of cholesteric and photoreactive homo- and copolyesters were synthesized and characterized. Most of these polyesters were prepared in such a way that a chiral spacer (e.g. isosorbide) was polycondensed with a photoreactive dicarboxylic acid, such as 4-carboxycinnamic acid, benzene-1,4-bisacrylic acid, 4-(4＇-carboxyphthalimido)cinnamic acid. In several cases other dicarboxylic acids, such as naphthalene-2,6-dicarboxylic acid or 4-aminobenzoic acid trimellitimide were cocondensed to favor the formation of a Grandjean texture. When ＇sugar diols＇ such as isosorbide or isomannide were used as chiral building blocks, suitable diphenols were required as comonomers to stabilize the LC phase. Most polyesters were capable of forming a selectively reflecting Grandjean texture, which can be fixed by crosslinking using UV light. An alternative synthetic strategy based on chiral, substituted terephthalic acids is discussed.